The present invention relates to the technical field of a digital image forming apparatus for obtaining digital image data by photoelectrically reading original images, recording images in accordance with the image data and outputting prints on which the original images are reproduced.
Images recorded on photographic films (hereunder referred to simply as xe2x80x9cfilmsxe2x80x9d) such as negative films, reversal films and the like are conventionally printed onto photographic papers and other light-sensitive materials by so-called direct exposure, that is, a method in which the recorded image of the film is projected onto the light-sensitive material for areal exposure.
In contrast, there have been recently developed digital photoprinters which make use of digital exposure. The apparatus reads photoelectrically the image recorded on a film, converts the read image into a digital signal and thereafter applies various steps of image processing to provide recording image data, records the image (latent image) by scanning and exposing the light-sensitive materials with recording light modulated in accordance with the image data, and produces a print.
In digital photoprinters, exposing conditions are determined by photoelectrically reading a film and subjecting the film to color/density corrections by means of signal processing. Since the operator need not determine the exposing conditions and further adjust a filter, a stop and the like at the time of exposure and the time required for the exposure per one image for the print is short and the exposure time in accordance with the image size is constant, the development can be performed more quickly than in the conventional areal exposure.
Further, it is easy to perform editing jobs such as composition of a plurality of images to a composite image, or division of a single image into segments and procedures of image processing such as color/density adjustments, edge enhancement and the like, and finished prints can be produced after desired editing and image processing has been made in accordance with a specific use. In addition, since the image recorded in the finished print is fundamentally handled as image data, it is not only output as the finished print but also can be supplied to computers and the like. Further, since the image data can be stored in storage media such as floppy disks, this offers the advantage that extra printing and other jobs can be accomplished without any films that serves as the original. In addition, since the exposing conditions need not be determined again, a job can be promptly and simply carried out.
Furthermore, with prints produced by the conventional direct exposure, not all of the image recorded in films and the like can be reproduced in such aspects as resolution and color/density reproducibility. In contrast, digital photoprinters are capable of outputting prints that feature almost complete reproduction of the image (density information) recorded on the films.
The basic components of the digital photoprinter under consideration are a scanner (image reading unit) for photoelectrically reading the image recorded on the film, an image processing (setup) unit that performs image processing operations on the thus read image to determine the exposing conditions for image recording and a printer (image recording unit) that performs development after a light-sensitive material was scanned and exposed in accordance with the determined exposing conditions.
In the scanner, the reading light emitted from a light source is applied to the film so as to obtain projecting light that bears the original image and the projecting light is projected onto an image sensor such as a CCD sensor or the like through an imaging lens and subjected to photoelectrical conversion to read the image. The image is subjected to various steps of image processing as necessary and thereafter supplied to the image processing apparatus as the image data (image data signal) of the film.
The image processing apparatus sets image processing conditions from prescanned image data, applies image processing in accordance with the thus set conditions to main scanned image data and supplies the image data to the printer as output image data (exposing conditions) for recording the image.
When the printer is, for example, a unit making use of scanning and exposure by means of a light beam, it modulates the light beam in accordance with the image data supplied from the image processing apparatus and deflects the light beam in a main scanning direction. In addition, it transports the light-sensitive material in a auxiliary scanning direction which is perpendicular to the main scanning direction to thereby form a latent image by exposing (developing) the light-sensitive material by the light beam bearing the image. Subsequently, it carries out development processing and the like in accordance with the type of the light-sensitive material so that the image recorded on the film is reproduced and made to a finished print (a photograph).
Excellent workability and high productivity resulting therefrom are required for the digital photoprinter.
What is used as the original in the digital photoprinter is, for example, a film referred to as a so-called strip which is mainly composed of an elongated film on which a multiplicity of images (ordinarily, 24 frames or 36 frames) are recorded. Since the strip may include, for example, images which were unsuccessfully recorded, there is a case that all of the images recorded on the strip are not output as finished prints. In particular, when extra prints are made, it is an ordinary practice to select the images of several frames from one strip and output the necessary number of finished prints for each of the frames.
Therefore, in order to realize an effective job, it is required to reduce the operation for reading the unnecessary frames from which the finished prints are not output and simply and promptly execute the selection of the necessary frames (images) from the one strip and the indication and the like of the number of output prints for each of the selected frames.
In a photograph print job, an approval job is carried out by the operator when necessary, that is, in the digital photoprinter, the image data obtained in the prescanning is processed under the set image processing conditions and the thus processed image data is displayed on a display such as a CRT (cathode ray tube) or the like, so that the operator executes the approval job using this displayed image.
Therefore, it is also necessary for the effective job to promptly select only the necessary frames and execute the approval job to them.
An object of the present invention is to provide a digital image forming apparatus which is preferably applicable to digital photoprinters and the like which photoelectrically read an original image, subject it to predetermined image processing, reproduce the image to a print and output the print, the digital image forming apparatus being capable of simply and promptly executing a job for selecting necessary frames from one strip and an approval job and realizing high productivity at an excellent job efficiency.
To achieve the above object, the present invention provides an image forming apparatus which comprises reading means for continuously and photoelectrically reading a plurality of original images and successively making the original images to digital image data; image processing means for subjecting the digital image data to predetermined image processing to create display image data; a display for displaying a plurality of the images of the display image data at the same time; indication means for indicating to select arbitrary images from the images displayed on the display and output the selected arbitrary images as prints; and a recording unit for receiving the output digital image data of the original images indicated by the indication means and outputting the output digital image data as the prints.
It is preferable that the reading means carries out prescanning for obtaining the display image data and main scanning for obtaining the output digital image data to be supplied to the recording unit in the reading of one original image.
It is preferable that the reading conditions in the reading means and/or the image processing conditions of the image data for obtaining the output digital image data are set from the digital image data for creating the display image data.
It is preferable that the images displayed on the display are images processed in accordance with the image processing conditions of the image data for obtaining the output digital image data and the image forming apparatus further comprises alteration means for altering arbitrary one of the image processing conditions, the reading conditions in the reading means, the number of prints output by the recording unit and the print size of the prints output by the recording unit after the images are displayed.
Further, it is preferable that the main scanning is carried out by automatically and successively transporting to a specified reading position the original images selected and indicated by the indication means after they are displayed on the display.